Phenomenal Daughter … Nathalie Handal

Phenomenal Daughter

Nathalie Handal

She told me,

Mama, I want to see the world.

I told her, Go.

When she returned she said:

I saw barefoot women carry water

from village to village,

saw men limp from border to border,

saw children disappear in tunnels

that lead to freedom, or so they hoped.

I saw families who lost everything,

even what they dreamed they’d have one day.

Saw history hide its shame in the huts of poor people.

And one night, I saw girls count stomachs swelled up like small balloons,

while boys played with empty soda cans.

They were so hungry. I saw madness.

I told her,

What a terrible world!

She told me,

It’s also in that world that

I saw the sky speak to the wind,

the wind to the sea, the sea to the waves,

and the waves to rising souls

that sang with voices so clear,

everything took flight.

Mama, you have to be brave to see.

In their phenomenal eyes,

I saw a promising world.